The present invention relates to passenger seats; and more particularly, it relates to a two-passenger seat designed for use in public transportation vehicles, such as buses, rapid transit trains, etc.
It is desirable to provide such a seat that is not only economical to manufacture, rugged and durable in use, safe in the event of a crash, and easy to maintain, but it is also important to provide versatility in the seating and to have a pleasant aesthetic appearance.
In connection with safety, the primary objective to prevent injury is to retain the occupant in his seat under conditions where the vehicle generates forces due to deceleration or component lateral forces due to a change of direction, as in sharp turns.
A properly designed seat contour, with sufficient inclined area will retain the occupant up to twice the acceleration of gravity, g, whereas a poorly developed contour will not prevent the occupant from sliding off the seat at forces below 1 g.
The seat must also absorb energy and moderate the magnitude of energy transmitted to an occupant. The seat must act as a compartment to restrain the occupant and prevent his becoming a projectile in the event of a crash. The seat must serve as a protective shield to ward off blows from projections of collapsing structures. Above all the seat must be structurally crashworthy to provide desirable deformation characteristics and still sufficiently strong to prevent disintegration.
The rear surface of seat should not only be aesthetically pleasing but it should be devoid of hazardous members that could become lethal objects in the event of crash.
The transit seat of the present invention provides a frame of rectangular tubing having a recessed seat area for receiving a one-piece molded plastic shell which is provided with contoured seat and back areas for each of two side-by-side passengers held by the seat. A single pedestal having a rectangular cross section elongated in the fore-and-aft direction is located beneath the seat spaced inwardly of the aisle end of the seat for supporting it. The other end of the seat is preferably connected to a wall of the vehicle.
Separate replaceable cover inserts are received in the contoured portions of the seat and back; and the contours are such that even though a cover insert is attached to the seat, there is still sufficient contour to retain passengers in place during turns of the vehicle. This has been found to be of significant advantage, particularly in buses and other public transporation vehicles wherein the seats are located relatively closely behind a forward seat. In other words, an aisle rail need not be provided with each seat, and this facilitates ingress and egress, while at the same time, a passenger has a feeling of stability during the various conditions of riding.
Any number of different types of cover inserts may be secured to the plastic shell, and this adds versatility to the use of the basic seat. For example, in areas where vandalism to public vehicles may be high, a plastic insert panel may be used. On the other hand, where wear is of primary concern, a vinyl-clad steel is preferred for each insert. A note of luxury may be added by padding the insert panels. This feature further adds to the versatility in the aesthetic appearance of the seat because, without significantly adding to cost and permitting the proper contour for all inserts for lateral retention of occupants. The color scheme can be varied from bus to bus or within a given bus, and the entire color scheme of the seating may be changed with minimal cost.
A grab rail of round tubular steel grabs is inserted into open ends of square side frame tubes beneath a top flange in the shell, and this softens the lines of the seat and enhances its appearance by hiding from view this connection. Thus, square or rectangular tubing may be used for the frame with its greater strength per unit cross sectional area, and round tubing may be used for the grab rail since it is more comfortable.
Another feature of the invention is that it permits the construction of a seat employing a plastic shell which is securely supported by its frame, so that the seat will not disintegrate in the event of a crash. Toward this end, the shell is secured at the top of the back and along the leg support bar.
The pedestal is secured to a transverse frame member spaced inwardly from the aisle, as mentioned, and this removed under-seat obstructions to persons moving up and down the aisle, as has been commmon in certain prior seats. Further, the pedestal is provided with a smoothly curved foot pad to facilitate cleaning around the aisle, and to eliminate any dirt-catching projections or recesses. To further facilitate cleaning, the one-piece plastic shell when fitted with properly contoured insert panels also does not have any dirt-catching pockets.
Certain aspects of the present invention are disclosed in but not claimed in an application in which I am coinventor, namely the application of Barecki and Karrip for "Rapid Transit Seating," Ser. No. 157,345, .Iadd.now U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,198, .Iaddend.which is directed to a cantilever transit seat.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment accompanied by the attached drawing wherein identical reference numerals will refer to like parts in the various figures.